Marcia Cull CRS CSP GRI RCC

Selling in 6 Months? Here's Your Timeline

A little work upfront can make a world of difference when it comes to listing your home. But where do you even begin?

6 MONTHS OUT

Find your agent. With six months to go, you have more than enough time to find your perfect agent without rushing the process. Use ReeceNichols.com to find an agent near you!

Schedule your game plan. Do you have any big trips planned? Want to avoid holiday mayhem? By thinking through conflicts in advance, you can work around your schedule and list your home at the best time for you.

Start familiarizing yourself with the current market. Your agent will be able to prepare you a comparative market analysis and set you up on MyNeighborhood Report so you can begin to get a feel for how homes in your neighborhood are priced. They’ll analyze additional data to make sure your home is priced correctly.

Target your new neighborhood. Start scoping out where you want to move. What are the average home prices in your potential ’hood?

3 MONTHS OUT

Make repairs. Now is the time to get your roof, plumbing and electrical system inspected and have any necessary repairs completed. Also, consider making small cosmetic changes that will show off your home in the best way — like painting walls or ditching outdated light fixtures. Getting this done now helps to account for any delays and keeps you on track to list in your preferred timeframe. You can find great service providers on Zaarly — ask your agent for a discount code!

Deep clean and possibly re-organize. Give your home a serious deep clean. And while you’re moving around furniture, consider storing some pieces or re-organizing a bit to show your home at its best. Rooms look bigger with smaller furniture, so why not make these changes while you’re already moving everything around?

1 MONTH OUT

Gather your marketing materials. Now that you’ve deep cleaned and gotten everything organized, your agent can help you have professional photos of your home taken for the online listing. Now is the time to enlist the help of a staging company or even stage your home yourself.

Set your official “live” date. You’ve already targeted the general timeframe you want to list in, but go ahead and set exactly when your listing will go live. You may want to debut your listing during our Open House Celebration. During our Open House Celebration weekend, ReeceNichols markets all open houses through online and radio ads — giving your listing an extra boost!

Start preparing for your move. In 2017, recently-sold homes were on the market for a median of three weeks. You’ll have enough going on once your home sells, so why not get a little packing done in advance? If you list in the summer, you’re probably safe packing up your winter coats, snow boots and holiday decorations. Same goes for listing in the winter with your swimsuits, pool toys and grill.

2-3 WEEKS

Consult with your lending officer to get your loan payout information. That way, you’ll have a better idea of what your net sales proceeds will be.

1 WEEK

Keep cleaning! It’ll cut down on the night-before-listing cleaning frenzy.

POST-LISTING

Congratulations! All your hard pre-listing work has paid off. Now, the real work begins. So, what do you do now? Learn about what to expect throughout the selling processhere.